On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 1:48 PM, Python <pyt...@bladeshadow.org> wrote: >> since = in a statement on its own is not dangerous. People *almost never* >> intend to write == for the side-effects only: > > Seriously? I do this--not every day, but more than occasionally, not > just in Python. > > flag = (spam == arg) > vs. > if spam == arg: > flag = True > else: > flag = False > if flag: > do_something() > else: > do_something_else()
That's not "side effects only". You're evaluating a comparison for its result - its primary effect. You're assigning the result of the comparison to something. Using equality comparisons for side effects would look like this: spam == arg No assignment. Just that, as a statement all on its own. It's perfectly legal, but I doubt you've ever actually done this. ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
